ya.gah describes inflicting suffering or grief and, in passive forms, people marked by mourning.

The predominant use describes bringing suffering, affliction, or grief upon someone: tormentors act against a soul, Job is crushed with words, and the LORD is said to have afflicted or caused grief. In its passive participles, the word identifies people who grieve or mourn.

1. Bringing affliction or grief upon others · dominant

   The active forms portray an agent causing distress: in Job 19:2 the Hiphil imperfect addresses those who cause the speaker's soul to suffer and crush him with words, while Isaiah 51:23 calls the oppressors active participles in a clause about making the speaker's back like the ground. In Lamentations 1:12, Lamentations 1:5, Lamentations 3:32, and Lamentations 3:33, perfect or sequential forms occur in clauses where the LORD has inflicted pain, afflicted Zion, caused grief, or does not afflict from his heart.

   Isaiah 51:23Job 19:2Lamentations 1:12Lamentations 1:5Lamentations 3:32Lamentations 3:33
2. People grieving or mourning · occasional

   The Niphal participles describe persons in a state of grief: in Lamentations 1:4 the feminine plural stands in the clause where Zion's virgins grieve, and in Zephaniah 3:18 the masculine plural identifies those gathered who mourn for the appointed feast. The APB renders these clauses with "grieve" and "mourn," though the translation does not align English words token by token.

   Lamentations 1:4Zephaniah 3:18

In the Anselm Project Bible: Across these verses, the APB presents the clauses with wording such as "cause my soul to suffer," "inflicted," "afflicted," "cause grief," "afflict," "grieve," and "mourn." These are whole-verse presentations rather than fixed one-to-one renderings.